Supply business that started in a garage is going strong after 35 years

Published 5:33 pm Monday, March 15, 2021

A chain of businesses started by a Hermiston native is celebrating its 35th year in business this year.

Brad Rozema, founder of Concrete Special Ties, started out in a very different line of work. After growing up in Hermiston, he went to school to be a band teacher, and ended up teaching music in several school districts, including Hermiston.

As the years went on, however, he eventually decided he was ready to try something new.

“There are constant challenges in teaching that go well beyond teaching kids,” he said.

As he thought about what he might want to do instead, he thought about his summers off college, when he used to work for his brother’s concrete business in Denver. There was a special kind of concrete tie there, he said, that he found out wasn’t distributed anywhere on the West Coast. So he decided he would become an exclusive distributor in that product.

That business plan was a mistake, he says now. He struggled to get traction as an unknown entity trying to sell contractors a product they weren’t familiar with.

“It was an uphill battle to gain their trust,” he said.

Eventually Rozema decided to expanding into other supplies that contractors might need, filling his garage with parts until the homeowners association eventually put a stop to it. 

He had gained the customer base he needed, though, to open first one store location, then another and another. Most were on the west side of the state, but Rozema still traveled to visit family frequently in Hermiston, so he kept a warehouse there, too.

Eventually, he moved back to Hermiston, sold off his west side locations and began expanding in this area instead, adding locations in Yakima, Kennewick, Walla Walla and Hood River in addition to the one in Hermiston.

Concrete Special Ties is a supplier for every sort of item someone working with concrete might need, he said. That includes tools and hardware, forms, rebar, wire mesh, chemicals, supplies for ADA-compliant curb cuts, decorative stamps and other supplies.

If he had to give someone opening a business for the first time any advice, Rozema said he would tell them to make sure they have a plan — a good, feasible plan. There is a difference between saying, “I’m going to sell hamburgers” and planning a restaurant, he said.

Second, Rozema said he would tell people not to take on too much debt that they might be stuck with if the idea doesn’t take off. He started his business in 1986 with only a $2,000 loan, which he paid off as quickly as possible. He said anyone starting a business should also realize that they’re going to have to make sacrifices.

“The first few years I live a pretty meager life,” he said. “Every penny went back into the company.”

He said he has seen too many new business owners immediately jump into buying something nice for themselves, like a boat, and then get hit with unexpected expenses or new taxes that they don’t have the money for.

“If you see some money, it’s there for a reason, and it’s probably because you haven’t paid a bill,” he said.

While owning a chain of concrete supply distribution points is a far cry from his past life as a high school band teacher, Rozema said he hasn’t left music behind. He enjoys playing with Brass Fire, a local nine-piece ensemble that is starting to play gigs again as things reopen.

“That’s how I’m filling up the music side of me,” he said.